SuperDuper! is an advanced, yet easy to use disk copying program. It can, of course, make a straight copy, or "clone" -- useful when you want to move all your data from one machine to another, or do a simple backup. In moments, you can completely duplicate your boot drive to another drive, partition, or image file.

Clones for safety. To ensure you can safely roll back a system after the unexpected occurs. With a few clicks, you can easily "checkpoint" your system, preserving your computer's critical applications and files while you run on a working, bootable copy. If anything goes wrong, just reboot to the original. When more...

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SuperDuper! is an advanced, yet easy to use disk copying program. It can, of course, make a straight copy, or "clone" -- useful when you want to move all your data from one machine to another, or do a simple backup. In moments, you can completely duplicate your boot drive to another drive, partition, or image file.

Clones for safety. To ensure you can safely roll back a system after the unexpected occurs. With a few clicks, you can easily "checkpoint" your system, preserving your computer's critical applications and files while you run on a working, bootable copy. If anything goes wrong, just reboot to the original. When you do, your current Documents, Music, Pictures -- even iSync data -- are available! You can get back to work immediately.

Clones for industry! SuperDuper has enough features to satisfy the advanced user, too. Its simple-but-powerful Copy Script feature allows complete control of exactly what files get copied, ignored, even aliased ("soft linked" for the Unix inclined) from one drive to another.

This is BY FAR the most useful and cost-effective piece of software that any Mac User could buy. Period.

I have used Macs since the 128k Mac in 1984. I have helped hundreds of people set their Macs up. I have run ITs groups for entire companies. I've tried just about every piece of backup software there is and the is The best out there, by far.

I recommend to everyone who owns a Mac to buy an external hard drive with a capacity of at least 2x the capacity of their internal drive. Create two partitions on the external, one should be the same size as the internal drive, the other should use the rest of the disk. The first partition should be used by Super Duper for creating a full backup of their internal drive, and the second partition can be used for Time Machine.

This is just about the safest and most convenient setup you could have.

Why bother? A key distinction is that SuperDuper can create a fully bootable backup of your internal drive. (You cannot boot from a Time Machine disk.) If something goes wrong with your internal drive, you can simply boot up off the external backup made by Super Duper! I tell clients to let Time Machine run every hour, and set up Super Duper to perform a Smart Update (of the backup) maybe every few days, or a week. This system has worked flawlessly for everyone that has employed it.

Losing your data is almost as bad as having your identity stolen. About 6% of hard disk fail within a year, and after 3 years about 18% are dead. Do yourself a favor, go buy an external hard disk that is at least 2x the size of your internal drive, and set up SuperDuper (and Time Machine) in the way I described. It will be the best insurance you ever purchased.